The Pregnancy Countdown
by hm15
Summary: Follow on from 'The Infant Addition'. Leonard and Penny prepare for the arrival of their baby.
1. Chapter 1

_**This is a follow up story for The Infant Addition, you don't need to have read it to understand what's going on in this fic, but it will help! (though you can probably guess what it's about)**_

_**So for all the followers of 'The Infant Addition' this is what you've been waiting for! I hope you enjoy it!**_

**The Pregnancy countdown.**

* * *

_3 months to go._

"Morning" Leonard whispered as kissed Penny's ear. She smiled and shifted her back around against his chest. They woke up exactly how they'd fallen asleep - laying on their sides with Leonard's chest pressed as close to Penny's back as he could, his knees tucked behind hers and his hand holding hers, resting on her bump. Leonard ran his fingertips down Penny's bare skin, tracing patterns over her stomach and up her sides and she sighed contently. She was surprisingly comfy considering she was 6 months pregnant but she put that down to being with Leonard.

Penny rolled onto her back and yawned, stretching her arms above her head. "Morning" she yawned and rolled her head to the side, smiling a sleepy grin at Leonard, placing her hands on top of his on her stomach. "Mm I'm hungry"

"Ah couldn't tell if that was your stomach or the baby." Leonard laughed as Penny half heartedly nudged him and collapsed back onto the bed. "And I'm not surprised you're hungry, it is-" Leonard reached across and looked at his phone. "-10:34."

"Whatever." Penny mumbled and rolled into Leonard's shoulder, resting her hand on his chest. Leonard played with strands of her hair until she was concious enough to converse with.

"Hey guess what?" Leonard asked after some time as he sat up against the headboard.

"Mm what?" Penny said as she too sat up and crossed her legs.

Leonard was about to speak again as Penny's stomach rumbled. "We should get something to eat. How about Marston's for brunch?" He laughed, teasing Penny.

"Tell me!" Penny whined, she knew Leonard always changed topics to annoy her but it was too early for this.

"It's exactly 3 months till the baby's due..." He smiled, resting his head back and turning it towards Penny.

"Woah are you serious?" Her eyes grew wide as she repositioned herself to sit facing Leonard. "That's come around so quick, I can't believe it!" Penny looked down and moved her hands around her stomach and placed them on her belly button. "It's actually pretty cool, 3 is my favourite number, and it's the 3rd today."

"The day of 3's." Leonard laughed. "And I know, it only feels like yesterday Sheldon was trying to break into our new house and move in with us."

"Don't remind me." Penny groaned and moved closer to Leonard. "So how about brunch?" She smiled and kissed him.

"Thought you might like that idea."

* * *

_**Sorry this was a short chapter but I needed to get a chapter up as you've waited long enough!**_

_**Next chapter will be up tonight I promise!**_

_**H x**_


	2. Chapter 2

Leonard took Penny's hand and lead her over to a table for two on the wooden terrace at Marston's. It was a typical sunny day in Pasadena and Penny was dressed in a floral maternity sun dress that Leonard had bought for her and had sunglasses balanced on her head. Leonard pulled out her chair and she commented on what a gentleman he was being and he pushed her chair back in and sat down opposite and smiled her. The waitress came over and handed them the menus.

"It's nice for someone to my waiting on me." Penny said behind her menu. Leonard nodded and went back to scanning the menu.

His mind was preoccupied though. He wasn't reading the menu, he was thinking whether now was the right time to ask Penny to marry him.

Leonard had thought countless times about proposing to Penny, back when they were first dating and in the beta test he actually did propose, but all of those times were wrong. This time he was sure, well as sure as he could be with Penny, she was prone to being unpredictable but now she had matured especially over the pregnancy and now he knew for sure that it was now or never. He was brought out his thoughts when Penny spoke up.

"Salmon Benedict sounds good, ohh but so do the pancakes."

"Get both if you want." Leonard grinned up from his menu at her.

"I'd never be able to finish both!"

"I'll get the pancakes, you get the salmon? Teamwork is the answer here." He grinned.

Penny cocked her head to the side and smiled. "You really are a genius. Okay lets do that then!"

Leonard called the waitress back over and placed their order. The waitress removed their menus from the table and Leonard reached over and held Penny's hands in his, she sighed contently and smiled.

"Thank you for this Leonard, it's so nice to get out the apartment block even if it does take like hours to get down the stairs."

"No problem, I like to take my girls out." He smiled and picked up Penny's hands to kiss them.

"I like being one of your girls. As long as your daughter is the other one." She joked and smiled at Leonard.

"Well actually-" Leonard was cut off by Penny playfully slapping his wrist. "Hey ouch, I'm kidding."

"You better be dude." Penny grinned as the waitress returned with their drinks.

"So what do you wanna do after brunch then?"

Penny thought and sipped her passion fruit ice tea. "Can we go to the park a few blocks down?"

"Yeah sure, I haven't been in ages well not since the kite flying drama with Sheldon and Raj."

* * *

The waitress arrived 20 minutes later with their food and they happily tucked in, sharing bits of each other's meal. Leonard fed Penny some of his pancakes which she happily munched on and left half of her salmon aside for him. Once they'd finished, Leonard paid for the meal and he helped her up; the baby was making day to day tasks harder than usual. Penny put her sunglasses on and her and Leonard walked the short distance to the park hand in hand.

At the park they found a quiet grassy area in between the play area and the pond. There were lots of people there, due to the good weather, especially families with young children. Penny smiled as she sat down; she couldn't wait to bring her children here and yes, she was thinking about more children already. Penny loved growing up with her brother and sister, having them to run around with and play games with. She knew Leonard wanted a family so he had probably already thought about how many children he wanted to have and that's when she realised they've never actually spoken about it.

Penny laid down on the grass as Leonard sat down next to her. She opened her mouth to speak but Leonard beat her to it.

"What you thinking so hard about?" Leonard asked as he played with the grass in front of him.

Penny rolled her head to the side and looked up and him. "How many children do you want? You know, once this one's out." She rubbed her hands over her stomach as Leonard laid down beside her.

"Mmm" He paused, thinking hard.

Penny knew he was thinking about some sort of scientific way of going about this so she cut in. "No, don't do all your analysing crap say what you actually feel not what you think Mr."

Leonard let the fact that Penny called him Mr for the second time today slide as he knew it was only playful and he thought again, looking up at the sky. "4 children. I wanna have this girl, then wait a bit and have a boy, then wait maybe like a couple of years and have twins, 1 girl and 1 boy." He turned his head to face Penny and she smiled.

"I like that idea a lot." Penny grinned at Leonard. He moved closer and put his arm around Penny so her head was resting on his upper arm and kissed the side of her head. "We'll have two of each then." She giggled.

"Uh huh, you can take the girls shopping and I can teach the boys science, well and the girls too. I'll leave the sport to you."

"Oh yeah leave the baseball and football to me." Penny laughed and shifted her weight to look up at Leonard. "Lets just hope they have your brains."

"And your beauty" Leonard smiled down and kissed her. "You know..." He said as he pulled back. "When you first moved in I uh... I said to Sheldon that... Well I said that our babies will be smart and beautiful." Leonard blushed.

"No way!"

"Yep, and he said they'd be imaginary."

"Well we certainly proved him wrong there didn't we." Penny smiled and kissed him again then moved to lie back in her original position and watched the clouds go by.

Leonard also looked up at the clouds and his mind wandered to proposing again. He'd brought a ring a few months prior, now he carried it around with him waiting for the right moment. He moved his free hand into the pocket of his jacket and clutched the little velvet box. Leonard was sure she'd say yes now, but was this romantic enough? It was pretty spontaneous of him and Penny has never been into the whole drama of going to a super expensive restaurant, but she didn't complain when he took her there. Was she expecting something bigger this time from him? This was going to be the last time she'd be proposed to, he hoped, so it had too be special. Special could be a number of different things to her though, but it definitely wouldn't be in the bed this time.

Penny had been occasionally glancing up at Leonard and noticed his furrowed brow and the look of concentration on his face. They'd been laying in silence for a while now and she could tell he was thinking hard about something.

"Are you okay honey?"

"Mm oh, yeah what?" Leonard looked startled as he was brought out his thoughts once again.

"Never mind." Penny decided to change the topic and hopefully clear Leonard's mind from whatever was bothering him. "Hey, have you ever played the cloud game?"

"The what?"

"The cloud game!" Penny repeated but Leonard was still clueless so she elaborated. "Right okay I'll teach you, me and my sister use to play this on top of the hay bales in Nebraska, it's fun! Look up at the clouds and tell me what you see..."

"A visible mass of condensed water vapour floating in the atmosphere." Leonard smiled smugly at Penny.

"Shut up clever ma- oh is that what clouds are? I always wondered."

"Well you learn something new every day right?" He grinned.

"Anyways enough science, back to the game! When I said tell me what you see, I meant use your imagination, turn the clouds into animals, buildings, whatever you see. Get it?"

"Think so..."

"Okay, I'll go first." Penny looked across the sky at the various clouds above their heads. "Right, you see that small cloud to the left of that greyish one that? Well that looks like Sheldon's BBQ burger."

"You're mad." Leonard shook his head.

"No right seriously look!" Penny untangled her hand from Leonard's and pointed it to the sky. "You see that it has the beef there because of that wiggly bit and then those two clouds down there are the bacon and cheese on the side." She spoke as she traced the outline with her finger.

"Rightttt..."

"Fine I'll go again." Penny looked up at the sky. "You see that white one with the tail next to Sheldon's burger? Well that looks like my horse I had back home."

"Did your horse have 3 legs?" Leonard smiled.

"No but it's err, that's what it looked like when it stood on 3 legs."

"Shut up." He laughed and played with a strand of Penny's hair. "It's my turn now, you're just making up 3 legged horses to win."

Leonard looked up into the sky for a good minute. There were easy shapes he could see, a rocket, a Helium atom, the symbol for gamma radiation, but he could also see a ring. If this wasn't a sign then Leonard didn't know what would be. He knew it was time.

"Got one. Okay, go right from Sheldon's burger and down a bit from your 3 legged horse. Do you see that circle?" He pointed up with his hand and drew a circle in the air.

"Mm, oh yeah I got it. And what is that meant to be?" Penny rolled her head to look at Leonard and raised her eyebrows at him.

"That's your engagement ring."

"My, my what?"

Leonard reached into his pocket and grabbed the little black box. He propped himself up on this elbow and opened the box, placing it in front of Penny. Her gaze moved from his eyes down to the box. When she looked back up Leonard saw the tears in her eyes and he spoke.

"Penny, will you marry me?"

* * *

_**Dun dun dunnnn, cliff hanger (kinda)**_  
_**Bet you're excited for the next chapter right?**_

_**H x**_


	3. Chapter 3

Penny looked stunned. She looked down at the ring then up at Leonard with tears in her eyes. She knew what the answer was but she was finding it difficult to get her words out.

"Leonard." Her voice cracked, Leonard smiled sympathetically and she continued looking down. "Yes, one thousand times yes, I will marry you." She looked up and threw her arms around his neck, causing Leonard to fall onto his back and Penny looked deep into his eyes. "I love you so, _so_ much you don't even know."

"Ohh, I think I have some idea." He grinned and kissed her deeply, wrapping his arms around her back. "So do you want me to get down on one knee and do this again or?"

"Oh yeah why not." Penny couldn't erase the smile from her face and moved off of Leonard, sitting on her knees on the grass in front of him. He picked up the ring and got one knee. Leonard leant forward with the box in his hands and opened it, revealing a silver band ring with a diamond in the middle that sparkled in the afternoon sun.

"Penny from the moment saw you across the hall all those years ago, I thought you were the most beautiful girl I had ever seen and you still are. I've loved you longer than you probably know and every day I still fall more in love with you. Penny I can't imagine spending even a day apart from you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, have more kids with you and grow old with you. I love you so unbelievably much so, well I know the answer already but, will you marry me?"

Penny raised herself on her knees. "Yes." She held out her hand and grinned as Leonard slid the ring onto her finger. "I love you Leonard." He sank down onto his knees so he was the same height as Penny and held her by the waist and she put her hands on his arms as they kissed, not paying attention to the dozen people watching them. Penny pulled back and a tear rolled down her cheek. Leonard cradled her face and brushed it away with his thumb.

"I hope these are happy tears missy!"

"Oh you betcha."

* * *

It was much later in the evening now, as they had waited till after Sheldon had finished his Saturday evening laundry ritual before coming to visit. Penny and Leonard walked hand in hand up the stairs of their old apartment block, excited to tell the gang their news. This reminded Penny of the time when they'd walked into the apartment to announce her pregnancy a few months prior. _How times change. _Penny kept glancing down at her hand which she held out in front of her, memorised by diamond on her ring finger. Leonard caught her looking a little too long and smiled.

"Leonard it really is beautiful." They stopped in the hallway outside 4A as Leonard dug his keys out of his pocket and began to unlock the door.

"Well I'm glad you like it, you can't seem to take your eyes off of it!" He said and stepped closer to Penny, leaving his keys in the door.

"Mmm yeah sorry."

"Don't apologise! So you ready to break the news to crazy?"

"What do you mean 'break the news'?" Penny asked raising an eyebrow at him.

"Well you know..." Leonard paused and put his arms around Penny's waist. "It's Sheldon, he's going to have something to complain about."

"I guess. Whatever, screw him-"

"I'd rather not thanks." Leonard grinned down at Penny and she squealed with laughter.

"Shut up." She said and pulled Leonard's face towards hers, smiling as he moved his lips around hers. Penny quickly pulled back when Sheldon opened the door and coughed.

"Oh, hello Sheldon!" Penny said a little over enthusiastically.

"I don't understand, you seem confused, but I live here."

Leonard and Penny ignored Sheldon and walked into the apartment.

"Here goes..." Leonard mumbled.

* * *

"Well, once again you're creating an inconvenience for me but congratulations all the same."

"Everything is an inconvenience with you, it seems Sheldon." Penny sighed and rubbed her hands down her legs. The conversation with Sheldon had gone better than expected but had still taken nearly an hour to get him to see sense.

Leonard could see Sheldon was about to make another remark so he decided to cut in. "So, what time are the others coming over? We'll need to tell them too."

"They're due to arrive in 8 minutes. I assume you're going to pick up dinner, or once again turn my life into chaos?"

"No don't you worry Sheldon, I'll still collect dinner."

The rest of the gang turned up a little late, much to Sheldon's annoyance. They took their normal seats - Amy next to Sheldon, Howard next to Bernadette and Raj on the floor as Leonard went to pick up the Thai food and Penny retold the engagement story, with a lot more detail for the girls and Raj.

"That is the cutest engagement story. You were playing the cloud game and awwh..." Amy couldn't finish her sentence, gushing with happiness for Penny.

"That really is special, Leonard is so great. We all had bets on when he was going to propose to you, it was only a matter of time." Bernadette joked and squeezed Howard's hand.

Raj remained silent, listening intently to Penny tell her story and the other women make 'awh' noises. Once she finished, Raj went over and hugged her, managing to squeak out 'congratulations'.

"Ah Raj, come here!" Penny held Raj tightly and hugged him, completely surprising him. Leonard walked through the door and he pulled back turning red and gave Leonard a thumbs up.

"What's going on in here?" Leonard smirked.

He put the food down and sat down next to his fiancée, put his arm around her waist turning her to face him. Penny put her legs over Leonard's lap and kissed him, ignoring the sighs from Sheldon. They whispered to each other, while the others ate and chatted amongst themselves. Leonard absent-mindedly played with Penny's hair as he listened to her talk about what kind of wedding she wanted, remembering every last little detail.

* * *

_**sorry for the delay, been recovering from christmas/new years!**_  
_**also just to let you all i know, i have physics and chemistry exams in like 20 days now eek so publishing will have to stop so i can revise and do some work!**_

_**new big bang theory tonight! wooo at last, i have a fic i wrote a week or so ago as a follow up from the episode that i'm sure you'll all like so look out for that friday!**_

_**H x**_


	4. Chapter 4

_2 months to go_

"Hey, guess what we're doing this afternoon?" Penny smiled as she exited their en suite in her Nebraska maternity football shirt and jumped onto the bed, sitting down opposite Leonard.

"Hmm what?" Leonard mumbled as he carried on reading an essay for work, making notes around the sides to type up later.

"No, I said guess!"

"Listen I really don't have time right now." Leonard snapped. He looked up to see Penny's face change. She no longer had the happy smile she had a few moments ago, now she looked hurt. "Sorry, sorry. I'm sorry Penny." He pinched the bridge of his nose as she looked down, playing with her hands. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to snap at you. It's just this work essay, it's driving me crazy. I'm sorry."

"No, no it's ok, I know you need to do work so I'll go downstairs and-."

"No this paper is useless, come here." Leonard took off his glasses and put the papers and his pen on the bedside table as Penny crawled up the bed and laid beside him. She rolled over to face Leonard as he slipped his arm behind her neck and ran his fingertips over her shoulder and rested his other hand on her stomach.

Penny smiled as Leonard kissed her nose. "So what are we doing this afternoon then?"

"Maternity yoga." She grinned. "You have to come, it's this partner one ok so no backing out mister?"

"Sure, sure sounds fun. What exactly do I have to do though? You know I'm not very flexible and-"

"I think it's just holding me in place and breathing stuff. You'll be fine relax!"

"Ok" Leonard smiled and kissed her. "What time is it?"

"We're leaving in 10 minutes, I just gotta get changed."

"And what if I had plans or had stuff to do hmm?" Leonard said raising his eyebrows.

"You're my boyfrie- _fiancée,_" Penny corrected herself. "You have no choice." She grinned.

* * *

"I'm pretty sure I'm going to make a fool of myself." Leonard said as Penny guided him to a matt on the floor. There were 6 other couples in the room, all at different stages in the pregnancy. "Wait here, I'm going to say hi to my friend." She kissed him quickly and walked over to a tanned lady with curly brown hair. Leonard watched her walk away in her new yoga pants Bernadette bought her especially for the class as her old ones would no way fit over stomach, much like the rest of her clothes.

"Ok class, ready to get started?" The teacher announced she entered the class.

Penny sat down facing Leonard and held his hands as instructed. The first exercise was a simple breathing one, Leonard hoped they'd all be like this. Next, Penny had to sit with her back against his chest and the soles of her feet touching, pressing her knees into the floor. Although Leonard wasn't doing much, he was glad to be here with Penny, holding her close. Later involved pelvic tilts and squats which Leonard observed. The partners sat out of this one which Leonard was happy about as it didn't look like something he wanted to be doing. The last pose of the class involved lying on their sides together to remove pressure from the women's lower backs, though this pose was how Penny and Leonard slept most nights so they found this one easy.

"See, it wasn't that bad was it?" Penny laughed as they walked out the gym into the parking lot.

"Nah, you're right it was easy, well for me it was as I was lying down most of the lesson, some of those squat things looked hard."

"Yeah, nothing I can't handle." She grinned and opened the car door.

"I'm glad I came though, it was pretty fun."

"Good, I booked us in again for 2 weeks time."

* * *

"So it's still pretty early," Leonard began as he dropped his keys on the kitchen island and leaned against it. "Wanna watch a movie or something?"

"Yeah, sure. Hey what about The Hobbit?"

"Really, _you_ want to watch The Hobbit?" Leonard said, raising his eyebrows at Penny.

"Uh huh, I saw the advert and it looked pretty cool. And besides, I finally finished the book too!"

"Okay, well get your jacket, we can probably make it to the 5 showing if we leave now."

"What why?"

"Penny it's not on Netflix yet, if you wanna see it we have to go to the cinema..."

"Hmm." Penny paused to think for a minute. "On second thoughts, we could just watch a different one in bed?"

"Yeah, I like that idea better!"

* * *

Leonard was sat up against the headboard, clicking the remote to flick through various movie options on Netflix while Penny was changing into grey sweatpants and a long sleeve top. She climbed onto the bed next to Leonard and snatched the remote from him, changing the film category he was looking through from Sci-Fi to Comedy, then handed it back to him with her best puppy dog eyes as he tried to glare at her but ended up laughing.

"Fine okay, comedy it is."

Penny grinned and leaned her head against Leonard's chest, but he quickly jumped up, causing her to flop down on the bed.

As Leonard ran out to room, Penny yelled "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

He poked his head around the door to see Penny collapsed on the bed where he'd left. "To get snacks!"

"Mm, good call" Penny mumbled into the comforter.

Leonard returned a few minutes later with a bowl of popcorn and a bowl of chocolate. He sat back down and Penny cuddled into his chest and looked into the bowls.

"What are these?" She said commenting on the bowl filled with small chocolate balls.

"Malteasers! I found them in the European section of Safeway. I had them when I was in Britain and I've been wanting them for years and years, and now finally I've found them. They're like Whoppers but a hell of a lot nicer, try one!"

"Oh yeah, you're right." She said, sticking her hand in the bowl to grab more. "You know, actually I think this will be my bowl. You can have the popcorn." Penny grinned as Leonard tried to take some from her.

They watched the first hour of the film curled up together under the white sheets until Penny began to get uncomfortable. She started to walk around the room, sit on the bed, stand up, anything she could to be comfy.

"Sorry, it's not you, it's this one." Penny laughed faintly, poking her stomach. "Keep still baby! She kicking right under my belly button, ugh."

Penny flopped down backwards on the bed with her feet hanging off the end and her hands covering her face. Leonard pulled her hands off and kissed her forehead, smiling down at her.

"Hey, I know what'll take your mind off pain. Lift your top up."

"Leonard not now I'm tired and-"

"No not _that._ Just uncover your stomach."

"Err fine." Penny mumbled as she rolled up her top.

"You said she's kicking your belly button yeah?"

"Um, yeah...?"

"Ok, watch this!" Leonard put one of the chocolates on her belly button and waited.

"What are you doing, what's suppose to-"

"Shh, hang on wait for her to kick again."

Right on queue, the baby kicked Penny in the exact same place under her belly button, kicking the Malteaser too causing it to fly in the air. Penny squealed with laughter as the baby kicked her again and again, this time she didn't seem to mind the aggravation the baby's kicking was causing to her.

* * *

_**Yeah **__**this last scene was so random but my auntie's pregnant with twins and I was at her house this weekend and she kept doing this with malteasers it's pretty entertaining and i haven't lost it...  
**__****__**and also **__****__**there's a maternity yoga class right before my yoga class on sundays so i kinda picked up a few moves hahah**_

_**P.s This will be my last update till February, I know I said that publishing The Glasses Effect would be my last but I wanted to get another update on this before my exams!**_

_**So until February...  
**__**H x**_


	5. Chapter 5

"Penny, something just got delivered for you, it's from home!" Leonard called up the stairs, holding a small brown box in his hands.

"One sec!"

A few minutes later, Penny walked down the stairs and into the living room where Leonard was sat looking at the box on the coffee table. She grabbed the box and sat down, beginning to tear the paper open. Inside was some of Penny's baby things, her old teddy and photos, as well as a new pregnancy book and baby grow from her Mom.

"Let me see those photos." Leonard said as Penny read the back of the book.

He picked them up and looked carefully at them all. There were ones of Penny through the years, the first was her as a tiny baby in her Dad's arms, the next few were Penny as a toddler climbing on their dog and various other pieces of furniture. The pictures of Penny as a small girl made Leonard laugh, she was in denim dungarees with her hair in messy plaits pointing at all the farm animals, jumping on their tractor, climbing on hay bales and riding horses. There were lots of Penny in the horse stables, mucking them out and feeding them. Leonard remembered Penny telling him that horses were her favourite animals and that's what she missed coming out to LA, being able to ride.

"Stop laughing at them would you! I was such a scruffy child." Penny said grabbing a few pictures off Leonard and looking at them. "Awh, this was Puzzle, my favourite horse!" She said, pointing to a picture of her laying across the black horses' back.

Leonard smiled at Penny and continued to look at more pictures of Penny's first day at school.

"I'm definitely putting this little girl into horse riding lessons. Then I get to go to the stables too." Penny smiled rubbing her stomach.

"You miss it, don't you?" Leonard asked turning to look at her.

"Miss what?"

"The country life, the animals, the stables."

"Yeah, I guess." Penny sighed. "But I have something better here." She said taking his hand and placing it on her stomach.

"I tell you what, I'll take you to some stables soon. Maybe you can teach me to ride too." Leonard smiled.

Penny just nodded and continued searching through the box.

* * *

"Morning." Leonard mumbled as he shifted his weight and tightened his arms around Penny.

"Mm, morning." Penny yawned. "Ugh dammit, hang on." She said as she reluctantly peeled Leonard off her and climbed out of bed, walking into their en suite.

"You alright?" He said as Penny re-entered the room.

"Yeah, yeah, madam was sleeping on my bladder then you kind pushed her even more." She sighed, rubbing her belly.

"Sorry about that." Leonard said, holding his arms out as Penny climbed back in and laid against him.

"I guess I can forgive you."

"Well I hope so as I have a surprise for you this afternoon." He said kissing her hair.

"Oooh really? What is it?"

"I'm not saying!"

"Leonard pleaaaaase!" Penny whined.

"Nope, then it wouldn't be a surprise!" Leonard laughed as he played with a strand of her hair.

"Hm, well I have a surprise for you.."

"And what's that?"

"You're coming grocery shopping with me this morning."

* * *

Leonard placed the shopping bags on the kitchen counter as Penny carefully sorted through them, putting food in the cupboards and fridge. Leonard sat on a stool and watched her, as Penny once told him 'he did it the wrong way' so he let her organise the kitchen how she wanted.

"So you gonna tell me the surprise then?" Penny grinned as she put orange juice in the fridge door.

"Nope, I told you earlier I'm not telling you!"

"Ugh, but I told you about yoga a couple of weeks ago!" She pouted.

"That wasn't really a surprise Penny..."

"Uhh, well it could have been!"

"What? Never mind, listen I'll give you some clues if you're that impatient."

Penny grinned and skipped round the island, dragging a stool to sit opposite Leonard.

"Well it's in Glendale, next to Griffith Park and it's outdoors. That's all I'm saying."

"Ooh, okay when can we go?!"

"When you've finished sorting all the food out I guess."

"Well I'd be a lot quicker if you helped me Mr!" Penny said, climbing off the stool, returning to the bags on the island.

"You told me off last time I helped!"

* * *

It was only a 20 minute journey on the foothill freeway across to Glendale. Penny spent the whole journey playing 20 questions with Leonard to guess why he was taking her to Griffith park and what they'd be doing there, but most of Leonard's answers were no. He pulled into a dusty and Penny immediately knew where they were. She turned to Leonard with her eyes wide and he smiled.

"No way, really are we...?"

"Yup, Lincourt Stables! I remember the other week when we were looking at your photos and you were talking about your horses and how you wanted our daughter to ride, so I thought I'd fine somewhere a little ahead of time and we could go and look around and yeah..." He trailed off when he noticed Penny with tears in her eyes.

"Woah, what's wrong Penny are you ok?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." She said blinking. "This is just.. amazing Leonard... Thank you." Penny leaned in to kiss him, holding the sides of his face.

"No problem." He whispered as he pulled back. "Ready to go?"

Penny nodded and they opened their car doors. Leonard came round the side of the car and helped Penny out as being 7 months pregnant didn't make this task easy. They held hands and walked into the barn, where they were greeted by a teenage girl sweeping the floor. She showed them through to the stable where they kept the horses and let Penny into one to stroke the horse who greeted her by rubbing its face into her neck. They walked around the yard to the jump course and dressage arenas where the girl left them to watch the lessons.

Penny leant her forearms on the fence and Leonard stood behind her with his arms around her. They watched the children in their lesson, learning how to climb onto the horse correctly and over the other side, there were 4 older girls learning how to canter. Penny smiled and turned around to face Leonard.

"So what do you think?" He said, moving his arms to her lower back.

"I love it here Leonard, it's beautiful."

"And will we be returning here?" Leonard asked, smiling down at Penny.

"Oh yeah." Penny grinned as she slid her arms around his neck and kissed him. "Definitely"

"I'm glad. Look-" Leonard pointed towards a group of young children putting their boots on. "That'll be our daughter soon." He joked.

"Ohh, just look at them! Their boots are so tiny aww, look!"

"Broody"

"Shut up" Penny said kissing Leonard again.

* * *

_**finally updating this, sorry for the wait! couldn't get into school today due to the snow so i thought i'd write a bit for this. i know this is a bit shorter than other chapters but i'm not sure where i'm going with this story right now so need to figure it out and will update after that. **_

_**H x**_


	6. Chapter 6

"Penny, for the baby shower, would you like any balloons?" Amy said suddenly. The girls were out for brunch, sat on the sunny veranda of Marsden's. Amy and Bernadette were drinking mimosas and so Penny wondered if Amy was drunk, a baby shower had never been mentioned, Penny hadn't even thought of having one.

"Excuse me Amy?" Penny questioned, sipping her ice tea.

"Well, for you baby shower next weekend, would you like balloons? I knew you had some weird aversion to balloons or clowns or something, but I couldn't remember what exactly." Amy replied, very matter of factly.

"Baby shower? What are you talking about Ames? I'm not having a baby shower!"

"Oh contraire, I've been secretly planning one for months. You're having a baby shower." Bernadette giggled as Amy withdrew a wedding planner from her bag, placing it on the table in front of Penny. Penny laughed too when she saw the words 'wedding planner' crossed out and replaced with 'baby shower planner' on the front. Penny flicked through the planner, smiling at Amy's comments and pictures as she began to explain the plans for next weekend.

* * *

"Hey" Penny called as she unlocked the door. Calling out to each other as they walked into the house had become a regular thing for Leonard and Penny now. In their apartment, it was clearly noticeable whenever someone entered the apartment but it was harder to hear the front door opening in their house. Penny still smiled each time, her parents did the exact same thing and it was like her and Leonard were a proper family now.

There was a muffled reply so Penny assumed Leonard was upstairs. She put her bag on the side and made her way up to find him.

"I was just coming down to find you!" Leonard smiled as he walked out his office and saw Penny arrive at the top of the stairs. "How was brunch?"

"Yeah, pretty good." Penny said as she walked past Leonard into their bedroom and flopped down on the bed. "Guess what Amy has announced though."

"Well it's Amy, so it could be something wildly inappropriate or sweet. 50/50 chance." He smiled and sat down next to her.

"Surprising sweet actually. It's do to with the baby."

Leonard had a puzzled look on his face so Penny decided to help him. "She's throwing a baby shower next weekend!"

"Wow, never would have guessed that." He grinned, laying down next to her.

"She had this wedding planner and-"

"Woah she's not planning our wedding, I mean we haven't even-"

"Leonard relax, she is using a wedding planner to plan the baby shower!"

"Well don't give her any ideas..."

Penny shook her head and smiled, wriggling closer to him. "So anyways, next weekend you, Howard, Sheldon and Raj won't be allowed in the house, it's girls only." She grinned, looking up at him.

"Hmm, since when do you have the right to kick me out of _my_ house?"

"Since always." Penny leaned up and kissed Leonard. "Does that make up for it?"

"Well it's a start." Leonard smirked.

* * *

The weekend came round quickly. Amy spent the whole morning running round the house, blowing up balloons and setting up tables. She hung ribbons across the doors and turned the whole house pink while Leonard and Penny lounged around for the majority of the morning.

"Should we help her?" Leonard asked, moving his hand up and down Penny's legs which were on his lap.

"Nah she told me to relax and that's what I'm doing." Penny grinned.

"You enjoy having people run around after you, don't you?"

"Oh yeah"

An hour before the guests, Leonard was banished from the house. Luckily for him, Sheldon, Howard and Raj were having a Halo tournament at the apartment so he could hide out there for a couple of hours.  
Leonard kissed Penny goodbye in the doorway with his arms wrapped around her until Amy yelled at him to 'get lost' so he sheepishly got in his car and drove away, much to Penny's disappointment.

Soon guests started to arrive, many were Penny's work friends. They bought in large gifts and set them down on the table, before taking a glass of pink lemonade and congratulating Penny. She had to give it to Amy; this was a well planned party. There were pink cakes with storks on and other pink foods, pink chair covers, pink everything, but not in a tacky way it was all so well planned out, there were even baby themed games for people to play.  
Penny began to opened the gifts from her friends as Leonard and the guys turned up.

"You're not meant to be here!" Amy shouted.

"Ames, it's fine, I would actually like them to be here! Besides a lot of my friends are leaving now!"

Amy agreed and walked over to Sheldon, who was in the process of assigning himself a spot in their house.

Penny smiled as Leonard kissed her and sat down, she was glad they could open the presents together. Meanwhile Howard and Raj found Bernadette and played baby themed twister. They couldn't help laugh when "right hand, diaper" was called out.

* * *

"Leonard have you seen all this?" Penny said, gazing over the presents they'd received. She couldn't believe how generous people has been, there was hardly anything they needed to buy for themselves.

"I know, we have so much stuff! Do you know where you want to put it all?"

"No, I can't face that tonight, I'm exhausted I might just go to bed."

"You can't go to bed now, you haven't even had dinner!"

Penny groaned and closed her eyes. "Hey, I'll cook for you. Go to bed and watch tv or sleep or something, dinner is on me tonight." Leonard smiled. "Dinner in bed."

"Mm sounds good, dinner in bed." She grinned and turned to climb the stairs.

20 minutes later Leonard entered their bedroom with 2 bowls, to his surprise, Penny was still awake.

"What we got then?" She smiled, sitting up.

"Spaghetti, it's the only thing I remember how to cook so you better like this."

"I'm sure I will, what do you wanna watch?" Penny asked, handing him the remote.

"No, no you choose."

"You can, I picked last and besides you were kicked out the house it's the last thing I can do." She grinned sarcastically.

"Then I pick Sex and the City."

"And I say no, lets watch Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back?" Penny said seriously.

"Reverse psychology never fails on you." Leonard laughed until Penny hit him with a pillow.

* * *

_**sorry the chapter was short and not very detailed, i don't like it at all but needed to post and had no clue what to write for this so just rambled on, it's not a very good chapter but the next will be better i promise as i have a proper idea for the update.  
also i have no clue what happens at baby showers as we don't have them in the uk so yeah**_

_**H x**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**all of you saying i don't have to post is so cute but i feel like i let you guys down if i don't update regularly ahhh, but this chapter should be better i had more direction with it**  
_

* * *

_1 month to go_

"Hey, I'm home." Leonard called out as he opened the door, returning from work. "Penny?" He asked when there was no reply.

Leonard walked into the study, putting his laptop on the desk and bag on the floor. He checked his email then continued his search for Penny. Leonard climbed the stairs and it didn't take him long to find her; she was asleep on top of the bed, clutching the remote in her hand and America's Next Top Model playing on the tv on the wall. He walked over to her and debated waking her up, Leonard knew she needed all the sleep she could get, but letting her nap now would mean little sleep tonight. He shook her shoulder and softly said her name but Penny didn't stir. Leonard put his hands on the mattress and leant over her, kissing her forehead. Penny's eyes began to flutter open as Leonard smiled down at her and kissed her lips.

"Hi beautiful." He whispered. Penny smiled and blushed. Leonard had said that to her countless times but even now it still had the same effect on her.

"Hey you." She said looking into his dark brown eyes. "Hmm" Penny pursed her lips and smiled.

"What?" Leonard asked, looking puzzled.

"No, no I was just thinking, I really hope this little one has your eyes."

"What you want her to wear glasses?" Leonard said, cocking his head to the side.

"No, no- actually that would be pretty cute, but I was talking about them in general. I could look into your eyes all day."

"Really, you want her to have dark eyes?" Leonard smiled as he climbed onto the bed and laid on his side next to Penny.

"Yeah, that'd be so cute."

"I think she's gonna have green eyes and blonde hair like her Mom." He said, brushing Penny's hair off her face and kissing her forehead. "She'd be like your miniature."

"Well I'll say it again, I hope she at least has your brains."

* * *

It was 3:38 pm when Penny finally got comfy at the table on the patio with her notebook and pen. She stretched her legs out into the afternoon sun, opened the book in her lap and picked up a pen, writing baby names at the top of the notebook, carefully underlining it. Penny flicked through the book, absentmindedly chewing the end of the pen while scanning the book for names that stood out to her. It got to 4 pm and the notebook was still empty, aside from the doodles around the edge of the page and a few more lines under the title. Penny threw the book down in frustration and chewed the pen harder, with less than a month to go she was now panicking that her and Leonard hadn't picked a name. They had all the necessary equipment and clothes for the baby, thanks to Amy's baby shower, just not a name and this worried her. What if she still couldn't pick a name when the baby was born?  
Penny wrote down 'Hofstadter' on the notebook as her and the baby would be taking Leonard's name and started to pair it up with various girls names. Sophie, Rebecca, Faye, none of them seemed to fit. She leaned back in the chair, placing her hands on her stomach and closed her eyes.

When Leonard returned from taking Sheldon to the dentist, he found Penny asleep with her notebook on the table. He sat down and picked it up, reading over the names she'd scribbled out. Leonard smiled at the fact she'd been paring them with Hofstadter. He turned the page and picked up a pen, writing down his own name thoughts while Penny slept beside him. Leonard tapped the notebook while thinking, but didn't once read the baby names book. Before long he had a list of 9 names, with a few circled that were his favourites.

Leonard ran his hand up and down Penny's arm and she slowly opened her eyes. "Hm hi, when did you get back?"

He leant over and kissed her quickly. "About 20 minutes ago."

"You should of woken me up!"

"It's fine, I was looking over your notes." Leonard said, turning the page on the notebook.

"Mm, very unsuccessful ones. Why is it so hard to pick a name?" She groaned, grabbing the notebook.

"Well, I wrote a few names on the other pages. We did actually pick the same name, it's one of my favourite ones."

"Oh yeah, what name?" Penny said, looking up and smiling at him.

"Um, Isabelle."

"Oh yeah I did write that down." Penny paused and thought. "Isabelle Hofstadter." She said, rubbing her belly. "Isabelle Hofstadter."

"What do you think?"

Penny looked down at her stomach and smiled when she felt the baby kick. "I love it!" She said looking up at Leonard. "And so does she by looks of it of it." Penny commented on the slight movement under her t-shirt from where the baby was kicking.

"We just picked our baby name." Penny pursed her lips, trying not to smile.

"We did." Leonard leant over and kissed her. Penny grinned against his lips, unable to hide her happiness. Leonard pulled back and kissed Penny on the nose, he rested his forehead against hers, grinning back at her.

"I love you." She whispered

"I love you too." He replied, kissing her again.

* * *

_**basically, i'm probably going to only do one more chapter on this because it's getting harder to update with school, my exams have finished for now but sadly my art and textiles coursework has not, so it's really tricky to find time to write and keep up a story. however, i might start a kind of follow up from this, each chapter will be related in the sense that it's about the baby but the chapters won't necessarily follow on. sorry to disappoint everyone but i've just got too much going on now!**_

_**H x**_


	8. Chapter 8

"Dressing gown?"

"Check"

"Old t-shirt?"

"Uh huh"

"iPod?"

"Yeah, can you grab it off the speakers?"

Leonard and Penny were packing their hospital bags for when Penny goes into labour. With 5 days to go, they thought it was time to get prepared for if they need to make a mad dash in the middle of the night. Leonard was calling items off a list he'd downloaded from Google and handing them to Penny, who was kneeling on the floor, putting the items in her pink suitcase.

"Do you wanna put an extra pillow in? They hospital might not have enough?"

"Yeah, why not." Penny shrugged as Leonard chucked one off the bed at her. "What else do I need?"

"Just snacks I think. We have everything for you, now for the baby's stuff." Leonard said, scrolling down the page on his iPad. "Wow, this list is longer than yours!"

"Serious? We might need another bag then."

"You might be able to fit it all in, let's try. Ok first is clothes."

Penny started rummaging through a box of baby clothes. Her and Leonard had gotten plenty of sleep suits and onesies from friends and family over the past few months. She pulled out a pink and white stripey one and a purple one with white flowers, holding them gently in her hand. She looked down at the material for a few minutes, suddenly everything was becoming so real.

"Leonard" Penny squeaked.

"Mm what?" Leonard was looking down the list, he hadn't realised that Penny was about to break down.

"I, I can't-" She threw her head in her hands and started to cry. "Leonard I can't do this"

Leonard immediately dropped to floor by her side and wrapped his arms around her. To tell the truth he'd been waiting for this moment of self doubt from Penny, he was surprised she'd held it together up until now. Leonard stayed silent, letting her cry for a few minutes until she quietened down and he pulled her shoulders back to look at her.

"Penny, you can do this." She sighed and looked away, but Leonard turned her chin back to look at him and held her in place. "Listen to me. You _can_ do this, you've read all the books, you know what to do! You're going to be an amazing Mom!"

"What if it's not like the books, what if something goes wrong, what if-" Penny sobbed into Leonard's shoulder again as he gently rocked her and stroked her hair.

"No 'what ifs' Penny. Life isn't text book, things will be different but it's nothing you can't handle, nothing _we_ can't handle."

Penny slowly looked up at Leonard. "You're going to be an amazing Dad you know." She said, resting her forehead against his.

He smiled and kissed Penny, cradling her face and gently running his thumb across her cheek. They stayed on the floor for a moment, before Leonard broke the silence. "Do you wanna finish packing?"

Penny nodded and kissed Leonard again. "I love you"

"I love you too." He replied, picking up his iPad. "Okay, do you have the rest of the clothes?"

Penny released her grip on the tiny clothes and moved back from Leonard. She laid them on the floor, straightening out the creases and folding them neatly. Next she picked out a pair of socks, handing them to Leonard who placed them on his fingertips and walked his fingers across the carpet which made Penny giggle. They moved down the list of necessities adding diapers and a blanket to the bag and finally they were finished.

Leonard placed their bags at the end of the bed and stood behind Penny with his arms around her, looking down at them.

"This is it." He whispered in Penny's ear.

"Uh huh, 5 days." Penny said, letting out an uneasy breath.

"Hey, you know due dates aren't really that signifcant? The majority of babies aren't born when they're expected. You could of had the baby last week, or she could make an appearance in 2 weeks. You just don't know!"

"Mm that doesn't really help..."

"I know you don't like waiting, but be patient. She could be here sooner than you expect."

* * *

Penny crawled under the sheets and rolled on her side. She planned on waiting for Leonard to finish in the bathroom but her eyes slowley started to close and she was asleep within minutes. When Leonard entered the bedroom, he saw she was sleeping and did his best to be quiet as he slipped in beside her. Trying not to disturb her, Leonard pressed his chest against her back and draped his arm over her stomach as Penny told him this was the most comfortable way to sleep and her back didn't ache as much when she woke up. All Leonard was interested in was making Penny a comfy as possible, especially during these last few days.

At 3:20 am, Penny woke up to more Braxton Hicks contractions. Over the past few days, these had become more frequent but didn't phase Penny, though this particular contraction was painful. Penny rolled on her back and placed her hand on her bump and it was rock hard, this wasn't a usual Braxton Hicks contraction. After half a minute, the pain went and she rolled back over, ignoring what happened. She moved Leonard's arm back over her and fell asleep again. 10 minutes later, the same thing happened again, and again another 8 and a half minutes later - that's when it hit Penny, she was going into labour.

She contemplated waking Leonard up, but the contractions were only every 10 minutes or so, which she was now timing on her phone, not regular enough for the hospital yet though. Penny got up and walked into their ensuite, hoping the light wouldn't disturb Leonard. She paced around the room for a while before eventually Leonard stirred.

"Penny?" Leonard asked, feeling the empty space next to him.

"Hey you, good job we packed those bags earlier!" Penny said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"What? Why?" Leonard put on his glasses and sat up looking at her.

"I know it's early but think it through Leonard..."

Leonard thought for a moment before his eyes widened in realisation. "Oh my God are you-"

"Uh huh, contractions and everything. This really is it."

"How long have you been up? How far apart are your contractions? Do you need to go to the hospital yet?" Leonard questioned, getting slightly flustered.

"Relax sweetie. I've been up an hour, contractions are 6 minutes apart and no, but we should get going in like 10 minutes maybe? The pain isn't too bad yet."

"You should of woken me up!"

"It's fine, nothing very interesting has been going on so I thought I'd let you-" Penny was cut off by another contraction. She grabbed Leonard's hand and shut her eyes, breathing through it like she had been taught.

"Ow ow, okay wow spoke too soon that was painful." Penny glanced down at her phone and her eyes widened, just like Leonard's. "And 3 minutes apart, how have they halved in time already?! It's a good job you're up, I think we need to get going."

Leonard nodded and got out of bed. He pulled on his trousers and jacket as fast as he could and grabbed his phone and keys from the nightstand. The bag they packed earlier was thrown over his shoulder and Leonard held out his hand for Penny.

"Let's go have a baby"

* * *

**_The End (for now)_**

A/N -

thanks everyone for reading this! i didn't wanna finish just yet but with the amount of work i have, i kinda had no choice. i'll be writing a new fic of them having the baby and random baby oneshot type things when i can and the odd post episode scene but from now on, no regular updates :( sorry guys! hope you all understand!

thanks for all the reviews etc, you've all been amazing!

i'll be editing this soon and removing all my comments soon so you a download at flagfic if you want it on your kindle or something!

H x


	9. Chapter 9

FOLLOW UP STORY IS NOW UP!

_**look for 'Baby Hofstadter'**_

sorry if this is false hope for this story, but the fic has now moved so be sure to follow baby hofstadter so you don't miss updates.

thanks all for reading and reviewing, you guys are great!


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